James Saunders

James Saunders is a British composer and performer of experimental music. He is Professor of Music and Head of the Centre for Musical Research at Bath Spa University.

James Saunders studied at the University of Huddersfield and with Anthony Gilbert at the Royal Northern College of Music.

His music has been played at numerous international festivals including Brighton Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Inventionen Berlin, The Kitchen, Music We’d Like to Hear, Ostrava New Music Days, Roaring Hooves, Ultima, and Wittener Tage fur Neue Kammermusik.

His edited book The Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music was published in 2009.

James Saunders creates open form compositions that explore group behaviours and decision-making. He performs in Apartment House, the duo Parkinson Saunders with composer Tim Parkinson, and the Open Scores Lab at Bath Spa University.

His music uses extended instrumental techniques, found objects and a modular approach as a means of exploring the sonic properties of materials. It is predominantly quiet, with sustained tones, often on the edge of inaudibility produced by mixing conventional musical instruments with a range of low-tech sound sources.

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